The NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative at Texas State University is presenting a series of free webinars open to all educators. Join NASA education specialists to learn about activities, lesson plans, educator guides and resources that bring NASA into your classroom. Registration is required to participate. To register, simply click on the link provided beneath the webinar description.

Imaginative Engineering for the Classroom: On the Moon Educator Guide

Audience: Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades 3-12

Event Date: Aug. 8, 2016, at 4 p.m. EDT

NASA is one of the largest employers of engineers in the world! “Design Squad®,” an award-winning TV show that airs on PBS (the Public Broadcasting System), engages teams of students in imaginative engineering challenges. Together, NASA and “Design Squad” have developed the On the Moon Educator Guide. The guide brings hands-on engineering and the adventure of space exploration to life for students. Join the NASA Educator Professional Development Collaborative to explore activities related to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite missions. Register online to participate. https://www.etouches.com/188501

Real NASA Data for Real Learning: Discovering New Planets

Audience: Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades 6-12

Event Date: Aug. 11, 2016, at 6 p.m. EDT

Use real NASA data to explore how the Kepler Space Telescope searches for planets orbiting stars beyond our sun. Investigate how to use Kepler Telescope data and Kepler’s Third Law to construct graphs and interpret data that determines if a planet, orbiting a star in another solar system, is Earth-like and a candidate to support “life.” Other related NASA STEM missions and resources will also be explored. Register online to participate. https://www.etouches.com/191056

NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace announce the 2017 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage Aerospace Concepts competition. RASC-AL is a design project competition for university-level engineering students and faculty.

The 2017 RASC-AL competition challenges teams to develop new concepts that leverage innovations to improve our ability to work more effectively in microgravity, by responding to one of four themes:

-- Lightweight Exercise Suite.

-- Airlock Design.

-- Commercially enabled LEO/Mars Habitable Module.

-- Logistics Delivery System.

Potentially, NASA could implement concepts derived from the design projects.

Interested teams are encouraged to submit a notice of intent by Nov. 8, 2016, and teams must submit an abstract for their proposed project by Jan. 19, 2017.

NEW THIS YEAR: As a part of the abstract proposal submission process, teams will be required to include a two-minute video. The intent is for the video to augment each team’s abstract proposal by including animation, graphics, or other creative ways of showcasing unique aspects of their proposed concept.

The 2017 RASC-AL Competition will implement a two-tiered down-select process. A steering committee of NASA and industry experts will evaluate the abstract and video proposals and select as many as 20 undergraduate or graduate teams to move to the next phase of the competition. Based on evaluation of five- to seven-page mid-project papers submitted by these teams in mid-March, the field will be narrowed once again to 12-16 teams who will be selected for the final round of the competition. The finalists will present their concepts to the panel of judges (the RASC-AL Steering Committee) at the RASC-AL Forum in June 2017 in Florida.

The RASC-AL competition is open to full-time undergraduate or graduate students majoring in engineering or science at an accredited college or university. University design teams must include one faculty or industry advisor with a university affiliation and two or more undergraduate or graduate students. A group of universities also may collaborate on a design project entry. Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged.

Are you a science educator or interested in science education? Sign up for the NASA Education “Science WOW!” mailing list. Receive an email with NASA’s latest science education offerings delivered “Weekly on Wednesdays.”

Science starts with a question, and so does "Science WOW!" Each week's message kicks off with a science question and a link to where you can find the answer. "Science WOW!" also highlights an awesome science education tool each week. These featured resources will include NASA apps, interactive games, 3-D printing templates and more!

Plus, "Science WOW!" delivers -- right to your inbox -- the latest science education opportunities offered by NASA. It's a simple way to keep up with the latest professional development webinars, student contests, workshops, lectures and other activities.

The first "Science WOW!" message is scheduled to be sent on Aug. 10, 2016.

NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, is offering tours that take visitors behind the scenes and inside certain research facilities. Glenn scientists and engineers serve as guides. Tours and open house events will be held each month through October 2016. Tours are free for groups and individuals, but reservations are required to guarantee admission. Visitor parking is also free.

On the days of the tours, a bus departs from Glenn's main gate every hour, beginning at 10 a.m. The last tour departs at 1 p.m. Each tour lasts about 45 minutes, and a stop at Glenn's Gift Shop follows the tour.

Glenn’s 2016 Tour Schedule

Aug. 6, 2016 -- See Things a Different Way: Check out Glenn’s Graphics and Visualization, or GVIS, and the Reconfigurable User-interface and Virtual Reality Exploration, or GRUVE, Laboratories. The GVIS lab uses advanced computer input and output devices paired with a variety of natural user interface devices and 3-D displays. The GRUVE lab analyzes data obtained either by computer simulation or from research test facilities.

Sept. 10, 2016 -- Vibration Testing: Join us on a tour of Glenn's Structural Dynamics Laboratory, where things get shaken to verify their survivability. Several experiments that currently are operating on the International Space Station were tested in this lab.

Oct. 1, 2016 -- Prepare for Impact: Come explore Glenn's Ballistic Impact Facility. See the laboratory that helped to identify the cause of the space shuttle Columbia accident and to return NASA’s shuttle fleet to flight.

2016 Summer Professional Development Workshops at Wallops Educator Resource Center

The Educator Resource Center at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is hosting a series of free summer professional development workshops for educators. Learn about these upcoming workshops:

NASA's BEST (3-8 Educators)

Workshop Date: Aug. 8-9, 2016

Learn about the NASA's Beginning Engineering, Science and Technology program during this two-day workshop. NASA BEST brings the principles of engineering alive to younger audiences, and the content is great for supplementing curricula.

Each workshop is limited to 20 participants. Early registration is encouraged.

National Science Foundation's Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers

The National Science Foundation is accepting proposals for the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers, or ITEST, program. This program supports the development, implementation and selective spread of innovative strategies for engaging students in experiences that do the following:

-- Motivate students to pursue the education necessary to participate in those careers

-- And/or provide students with technology-rich experiences that develop their knowledge of related content and skills (including critical thinking skills) needed for entering the STEM workforce.

ITEST projects must involve students but may also include teachers. The ITEST program is especially focused on broadening participation of students from traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM fields and related education and workforce domains. ITEST strongly encourages projects that actively engage business and industry partners. The resulting relationships better ensure that the students’ experiences foster the knowledge and skill sets needed for emerging STEM-related occupations.

The Theodore von Kármán Lecture Series, named after the founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and presented by JPL's Office of Communication and Education, shares the excitement of the space program's missions, instruments and other technologies.

Lectures take place twice per month, on consecutive Thursdays and Fridays. The Thursday lectures take place in JPL's Theodore von Kármán Auditorium, and Friday lectures take place at Pasadena City College's Vosloh Forum. Both start at 7 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. EDT). Admission and parking are free for all lectures. No reservations are required, but seating is limited. The Thursday evening lectures are streamed live for viewing online. Archives of past lectures are also available online.

After 10 years of flight, the Rosetta spacecraft caught up with a comet and dropped a lander on its surface. The mother spacecraft has been orbiting the comet, and in September 2016 it will touch down onto the comet to end the mission. Join experts from the Rosetta team for a discussion about the upcoming landing and what we have learned from Rosetta about comets and the formation of the solar system.

Nonprofit museums, libraries and planetariums (sponsored through their respective State Agency Surplus Property, or SASP, organization) are also eligible to make requests. Visit the link below for special instructions to request items. To find the contact information for the SASP representative for your area, visit http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/100851.

U.S. Department of Defense Seeks Applications for Acquisition of Equipment/Instrumentation

The U.S. Department of Defense is soliciting applications for the acquisition of equipment/instrumentation under the Fiscal Year 2017 Research and Education Program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions. The Research and Education Program is designed to enhance the research capabilities of HBCUs and MSIs and strengthen their STEM education programs.

The purpose of funding under this Broad Agency Announcement is to (1) support the acquisition of equipment/instrumentation to augment existing capabilities or to develop new capabilities in research areas of interest to the Department of Defense, and (2) attract students to pursue studies leading to STEM careers. Funding provided under this Broad Agency Announcement cannot be used for student support. But to further DoD’s objective of attracting students to pursue studies leading to STEM careers, applicants must address the impact of the requested equipment/instrumentation on student participation in research.

The History Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the Department of History at the University of Alabama Huntsville invite academics, graduate students and independent scholars to submit proposals for papers to be presented at a two-day symposium March 16-17, 2017. The symposium will take place at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and will address the role and relationship of NASA to the “Long” Civil Rights Movement, particularly in, but not limited to, the Deep South (Huntsville, Alabama; Florida; Houston, Texas; Mississippi; and New Orleans, Louisiana).

The conceptual framework for the symposium is provided by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall’s 2005 essay in the Journal of American History. Her essay "The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past" called upon historians to produce new "modes of writing and speaking that emphasize individual agency … while also dramatizing the hidden history of politics and institutions." Along these lines, the conference welcomes papers addressing the Civil Rights experience across NASA that not only explore the experience of African-Americans, but also of women, immigrants and other politically/legally marginalized groups. The intention is to publish a subset of the papers as an anthology.

Those interested in presenting a paper at the symposium should send an abstract of no more than 400 words and a short biography or curriculum vita, including affiliation, to Brian Odom at brian.c.odom@nasa.gov or Dr. Stephen Waring at warings@uah.edu by Aug. 31, 2016.

The National Science Foundation is seeking proposals for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities -- Undergraduate Program. HBCU-UP is committed to enhancing the quality of undergraduate STEM education and research at Historically Black Colleges and Universities as a means to broaden participation in the nation's STEM workforce. HBCU-UP realizes this purpose by providing awards to develop, implement, and study innovative models and approaches for making dramatic improvements in the preparation and success of HBCU undergraduate students so that they may participate successfully in graduate programs and/or careers in STEM disciplines.

HBCU-UP provides support for a variety of opportunities. These include:

Targeted Infusion Projects, Broadening Participation Research Projects, Implementation Projects, and Achieving Competitive Excellence Implementation Projects: These projects aim to support efforts that increase STEM participation at HBCUs. See the website for individual project descriptions. The deadline to submit a required notice of intent for these projects is Sept. 6, 2016. Full proposals are due Nov. 22, 2016.

Broadening Participation Research Centers: These centers represent the collective intelligence of HBCU STEM higher education and serve as the national hubs for the rigorous study and broad dissemination of the critical pedagogies and culturally sensitive interventions that contribute to the success of HBCUs in educating African-American STEM undergraduates. Centers are expected to conduct research on STEM education and broadening participation in STEM; perform outreach to HBCUs to build capacity for conducting this type of research; and work to transfer and disseminate promising participation-broadening research to enhance STEM education and research outcomes for African-American undergraduates across the country. The preliminary proposal deadline for this opportunity is March 21, 2017. Full proposals are due Nov. 22, 2017.

NASA’s Game Changing Development Program and the National Institute of Aerospace announce the 2017 Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-changing Idea Challenge. The BIG Idea Challenge invites teams and their faculty advisors to work together to design and analyze potential modular concepts and systems that provide the ability to construct large solar electric propulsion, or SEP, tugs in space that can transfer payloads for low Earth orbit to a lunar distant retrograde orbit. Concepts can employ new approaches for packaging modules in one or more launch vehicles that minimize launch loads; modular (distributed) solar arrays and ion engines; and robust robotic assembly (joining) of the modules that form the SEP tug.

Interested teams of three to five undergraduate and/or graduate students will submit proposals (eight to10 pages) describing their BIG Idea. Based on a review of the proposals, four teams will be selected to submit full technical papers and present their concepts to a panel of NASA judges at the 2017 BIG Idea Forum at NASA's Langley Research Center on Feb. 15 and 16, 2017, in Hampton, Virginia.

The final four qualifying teams will receive a $6,000 stipend to facilitate participation in the BIG Idea Forum. The winning team will receive offers to participate in paid internships with the Game Changing Development team at Langley Research Center where they can work toward further developing their concept under the mentorship of NASA experts.

Interested teams are encouraged to submit a notice of intent by Sept 30, 2016, and teams must submit proposals by Nov. 30, 2016.

For full competition details, including design constraints and submission guidelines, please visit http://BigIdea.nianet.org.

Join educators and space enthusiasts around the world to celebrate the United Nations-declared World Space Week, Oct. 4-10, 2016. This international event commemorates the beginning of the Space Age with the launch of Sputnik 1 on Oct. 4, 1957.

World Space Week is the largest public space event in the world, with celebrations in more than 70 nations. During World Space Week, teachers are encouraged to use space-themed activities to excite students about science and technology.

Participating is easy. Visit the World Space Week website to find educational resources to use in the classroom. Share your own lessons and events to get maximum recognition for your school. After your events, visit the website to share details and lessons learned.

The NASA Headquarters Office of Education, in cooperation with the agency’s four mission directorates, nine center education offices, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory education office, announces this competition to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. Responses must be submitted electronically via the NASA data system NSPIRES (http://nspires.nasaprs.com).

NASA Education seeks to partner with eligible domestic or international organizations on a no-exchange-of-funds basis to reach wider and more diverse audiences and to achieve mutually beneficial objectives. The announcement places a priority on collaboration involving the following: digital learning; engaging underrepresented groups in STEM; NASA-themed STEM challenges; and youth-serving organizations. NASA also is receptive to other creative ideas including, for example, investigations or application of science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics and design, or STEAMD; or activities culturally relevant to or focused on populations underrepresented in STEM careers, such as women, ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities. The announcement explains the criteria used to review responses and NASA’s partnership mechanism known as a no-exchange-of-funds or nonreimbursable Space Act Agreement.

Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has sent back mind-blowing images that not only changed our understanding of our universe, but also changed where we see glimpses of our universe in everyday life.

Hubble is more than a science spacecraft; it’s a cultural phenomenon! Take a moment to think about where you’ve seen the Hubble Space Telescope or Hubble images in your daily life. Maybe you own a textbook with a picture of the telescope on the cover, or you walk by a mural inspired by Hubble images every day on your way to work. Perhaps you’ve even created art based on Hubble images. NASA wants to see the Hubble impact in your life! Share your photos with NASA on Instagram, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook.

Are you looking for ways to prepare your students for STEM-related career opportunities? Do you want to spark their interest in pushing the boundaries of technology and innovation? Right now, NASA’s fleet of Mars robotic explorers is paving the way for human exploration of the solar system in the coming decades. Have your students join NASA in preparing for a monumental journey of a lifetime -- to Mars!

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s "ISS: Science on Orbit" exhibit provides visitors with a true sense of what it is like to live and work in space. This exhibit, funded by a NASA grant, begins with a model of NASA’s Payload Operations Integration Center, where scientists and engineers on Earth manage the complex, international science experiments that astronauts conduct on the International Space Station.

Two mockups of space station modules contain 20 full-scale replica racks that illustrate the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems, the astronauts’ food, and a sleeping berth, among other necessary aspects of life and work aboard the station. A connecting node contains a full-scale replica of the Cupola Observation Module, which provides space station crew members with a view of Earth and space.

Mars needs you! In the future, Mars will need all kinds of explorers, farmers, surveyors, teachers … but most of all, YOU! Join NASA on the Journey to Mars as we explore with robots and, one day, send humans there.

Download a Mars poster that speaks to you. Each of the eight posters represents a different type of explorer NASA is seeking.

You can view them online, print them and share them with your friends.

Searchable Portals for Federally Sponsored Opportunities for STEM Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Are you an undergraduate or graduate student seeking opportunities in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)? The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science -- in collaboration with the participating agencies in the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM) and the Science.gov Alliance -- has launched a search portal for both students and universities to discover federally sponsored STEM education training and funding opportunities.

Student users can search the site for opportunities they can apply to directly, such as research internships and fellowships. Likewise, universities can search the site for federal funding opportunities to establish innovative training programs for undergraduates or graduate students.

Users can search the site through faceted searching capabilities for characteristics such as program type, STEM discipline, institution location, federal sponsor, and eligibility. Or they can search through the open text option.